A Walk in the Woods

On a fine but windy morning today's walk took me through the mainly deciduous forestry on the Golspie side of Dunrobin Castle where the moss- and fern-covered remains of ancient walls, some still as much as five metres high, snake through the trees. It's an area in which we've seen roe deer before but not for several months so I was thrilled to spot....

....a hind which was equally aware of me but quite content to stand and watch me rather than take immediate flight. With her was....

....a buck which, from the way he followed close on her heels when she finally decided she's had enough of watching me watching her, may well have been last year's young.

The two deer had hardly disappeared before I spotted a tree creeper, a tiny bird with a long, down-turned bill which it uses to probe for insects in the bark of trees. They work their way up the trunk of a tree then fly down to the bottom of the next. As with the deer, it's some months since we last saw one of these - which isn't surprising as their size and superb camouflage make them difficult to spot.

My walk took me past the main site for scarlet elf cups where many of the earlier fruiting bodies are now dead but there are still plenty of new ones appearing. I also passed a second established site, just by the castle, where two are still visible. So the elf cups have done well this winter while many of the other fungi species seem not to have bothered to fruit at all - I didn't see a single one today. One wonders why.

I walked back along the coast path where the recent gales have, in places, buried it under shingle - the path runs just to the left of the bench. For the third year running the field behind the path, the Dairy Meadow, has been ploughed, the insects and worms in its rich sandy soil now being exploited by pigeons, crows, gulls and....

....a small flock of yellowhammers.